April 10, 2005

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Several members of an advocacy group for victims of priest sexual abuse were flying to Rome Sunday to protest Cardinal Bernard Law's celebration of a Mass honoring the late Pope John Paul II, the organization's founder said Saturday night.

Law, former archbishop of Boston, is to say Mass Monday at St. Peter's Basilica.

Law is archpriest of Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, where he presided on Sunday. Pope John Paul II appointed him to that post after Law was implicated in the sexual abuse scandal in Boston in 2002.

But The Associated Press reported that he did not give the homily -- an apparent indication of how seriously cardinals preparing to elect a new pope were taking an unanimous decision for secrecy.

Court documents showed Law knowingly moved priests accused of abuse from parish to parish without disclosing allegations against them. He resigned in 2003 amid intense public outrage.